As Gaza cries out, aid calls for US aid to Israel | Conflicts between Israel and Palestine Issues
Los Angeles, California, United States – For 66-year-old Mariam Sbeitan Ali, the escalation of violence between Israel and Palestine has evoked sad memories.
Ali was only 12 years old and lived in East Jerusalem when the Arab-Israeli war broke out in 1967. He remembers washing dishes in the yard of his house when a bomb exploded.
A few days later, Israeli forces occupied East Jerusalem, and later continued to violate international law.
“The soldiers came from door to door and told us to leave. “They told us they would pay for our bus to Jordan,” he told Al Jazeera.
Ali’s family – including his mother and five siblings – fled to Al-Karameh, a border town in Jordan. But security was not found there even in the light of the “difficult war”.
She remembers her mother throwing her into an empty pot and covering her with her body to protect her.
Here she is 66 years old, the mother of two daughters who are practicing midwives in California. But the pain of the relocation he experienced as a child is still black – so dark that he has been plagued by fear and helplessness as he sees Palestinians in recent weeks being forcibly evicted from their homes in Jerusalem and an 11-day Israeli bombing in Gaza that kills 248.
“She cries every night,” their daughter, Noora Ali, told Al Jazeera. “The problem still haunts him to this day. He still remembers the bomb that was next to him. ”
But Ali has no hope. That’s because recent atrocities have also sown seeds of water change in the United States.
A change of mind
On May 15, Ali and his daughters descended on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles surrounded by a sea of Palestinian flags and placards calling for an end to US military assistance in Israel.
He had been involved in such activities for many years, the family said, but had never seen such support from outside the Palestinian cause.
“It touched my heart deeply. I had blisters on my feet, but I could walk and walk. I never knew them, ”said Ali.
Organizers say 20,000 people went to visit Palestinian independence in Los Angeles, California in the United States on May 15 [Credit: Brian Osgood/Al Jazeera]
Los Angeles protesters, one of the nation’s largest protesters, estimated that more than 20,000 people had attended.
The Pro-Israel factions are the most powerful force in the US, giving millions of dollars to those who want to become U.S. politicians every year. During the 2020 campaign, groups were pro-Israel donated $ 30.95m, while 63% goes to Democrats and 36% to Republicans, according to the nonprofit OpenSecrets.org.
But as the Democratic Party leadership still favors Israel, attitudes among party voters have changed.
A 2021 Gallup poll found that while two-thirds of Democratic voters still have a positive attitude towards Israel, two-thirds also love the Palestinian state. Support among Democratic voters in the US to put more pressure on Israel to make peace reached 53 percent.
Now, Palestinian rights groups and their allies in the progressive movement want to interpret this transformation of the human race into a legal change in the US, starting with placing resources on billions of dollars in funding The US exports to Israel every year.
“We understand that we are still facing political crisis before we can end the American genocide because of apartheid in Israel,” Lubna Hammad, who heads the Yalla Indivisible faction, which helped organize the march, told Al Jazeera.
“But the ongoing negotiations, a major review of American-Israeli relations, would have been impossible a few years ago,” he added.
Progress requires change
US President Joe Biden has continued to express his support for Israel in the current war and wants to sell US $ 735m worth of weapons to his troops.
“Biden is not failing to push for an end to the war, but he is giving [President Benjamin] Netanyahu’s government is shining brightly, “Khaled Elgindy, director of the Palestinian program at the Middle East Institute, told Al Jazeera.
But while US military assistance to Israel appears to have been politically unstable for decades, Palestinian militant groups and US lawmakers continue to address their concerns.
On Wednesday, delegates Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, and Mark Pocan of Wisconsin said they had made the decision in stop selling weapons for $ 735m to Israel.
While that would not be possible, it represents growing interest in forcing the Democratic Party.
“Having members of Congress seeking the dissolution of the US military and asking for an end to the war, shows that we have a voice and we are developing,” Omar Ghraieb, a Palestinian correspondent living in Gaza, told Al Jazeera via email.
The media has also made real stories of violence and relocation available to the general public, with the organizers claiming to be playing a key role in changing the issue.
“The country can no longer act if they do not see what is happening in Palestine; he will eventually be forced to judge Israel, “Ghraieb said.
There have been other experiences as well. Minnesota’s representative Betty McCollum also introduced laws calling for greater surveillance with the help of the U.S. military, seeking to ensure that it is not used in such activities as the detention, detention, or theft of Palestinian property from its citizens.
For a time, it seemed possible for the people to move on until the independence of Palestine was achieved. I think it’s over now. Palestine is one of the largest groups in the cause of justice and freedom.
Bill right now has it Movies 22 and is supported by more than 100 groups and human rights activists, according to Amanda Yanchury, McCollum’s executive director.
“Changes will not happen overnight or through a single bill – it will come at a time when the American people no longer want to allow our tax money to be used to support the persecution of the Palestinian people,” Yanchury told Al Jazeera via email.
Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online. But he was urged to help improve the growing tensions between the US and Israel.
“We’ve seen a lot of people talk this week about the need to protect the rights of the Palestinian people,” Beth Miller, a political activist for the leading Voice for Peace, told Al Jazeera. “Anyone who cares about Palestinian rights should fool themselves into supporting this bill.”
Helpful support
For Palestinians living under Israeli rule, the question of whether to establish military aid is unknown.
“The benefits of the Palestinian military support are clear,” Mariam Barghouti, a Palestinian writer and researcher based in the West Bank, told Al Jazeera. “It means the oppression of the Palestinian people by the Israeli military and the border police. It means the cleansing of the tribes. It means the bombing of Gaza.”
The country can no longer act if they do not see what is happening in Palestine; eventually he will be forced to judge Israel.
While the Palestinian people are quick to point out that they are facing political challenges in the ongoing standoff between Israel and the US, they are also feeling the change.
“For a while, it seemed impossible for the people to do more than just Palestinian rights,” Ahmad Abuznaid, director general of the US Campaign for Palestine Rights, told Al Jazeera. “I think it’s over now. Palestine is part of a larger movement promoting justice and freedom. ”
As the gap between the Democratic Party’s foundations and its leaders deepens, Abuznaid said he was optimistic that a change would be possible.
“Yes, [Biden] The leadership has been disappointing, ”he said. “But the movement of more people is what ultimately brings about change, and we are seeing a change that has never happened before.”
